Black Lives Matter: What’s PrEP Got to Do With It?

Los Angeles, April 19, 2016—Today the Black AIDS Institute, in partnership with Gilead Sciences, is releasing its 2016 report on the State of AIDS in Black America: “Black Lives Matter: What’s PrEP Got to Do With It?” The report focuses on what Black communities need to know about pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and other new biomedical HIV prevention tools.

Many scientists, doctors and advocates believe that the scientific tools needed to end the AIDS epidemic already exist. Unfortunately, as the persistently unacceptable high rates of new HIV infections underscore, these tools are not being applied effectively in Black communities. While new HIV diagnoses in the U.S. as a whole fell 19 percent between 2005 and 2014, new cases among Black gay and bisexual men, for example, increased by 87 percent.

When used correctly, PrEP has been shown to reduce the risk of acquiring HIV by over 90% for HIV-negative individuals with an HIV-positive partner; however, it is still being underutilized in Black communities.